April 20, 2012

What was in the news on April 20, 1962?

Plans for the length of the Second Vatican Council are predicted, and six possible topics for discussion

Criterion logo from the 1960sBy Brandon A. Evans

This week, we continue to examine what was going on in the Church and the world 50 years ago as seen through the pages of The Criterion.

Here are some of the items found in the April 20, 1962, issue of The Criterion:

  • Sees a three-phase division in coming Vatican Council
    • “CHICAGO—The Second Vatican Council probably will be split into three sessions, extending over a period of nearly a year, it was predicted here by Father Gustave Weigel, S.J., a noted theologian and author who is helping to prepare for it. … The way plans are shaping up now, he said, the Council may follow a schedule according to these approximate dates: First session—October 11 to December 8. Second session—February 2, 1963, to shortly before Holy Week. Easter falls on April 14 next year. Third session—Pentecost [50 days after Easter], or June 2, 1963, to sometime in July 1963. … The Ecumenical Council primarily will be concerned with ‘internal relationships of the Roman Catholic Church,’ the Jesuit noted. Among the probable items of the Council agenda, he said, are: 1) Redefinition of the ‘meaning and power of a bishop.’ … 2) Position of laymen in the Church, and relationship of the laity and religious to the bishops. 3) Relationship of the ‘secular and sacral’ (Church-state). 4) Liturgical problems, such as use of Latin or the vernacular. 5) Questions on how much liberty should be granted to the ‘newer Churches’ in Africa and Asia. 6) One of the most contested issues, and perhaps the most important one facing the Church, is that of centralization of power.
  • Varied opinions: Editor, two clergymen voice school aid views
  • New Orleans situation complex, writer finds
  • No boycott of schools, enrollment figures show
  • Laity’s opinions invited on synod
  • Separated Christians and Vatican Council: Basic principles in the quest for unity
  • Pontiff alters status of Cardinal Bishops
  • Moscow’s Red Square ‘mecca’ for pilgrims
  • Four Protestant sects to renew merger talks
  • Pope says farm problems are not purely economic
  • Agency seeks to resettle 35,000 Cuban refugees
  • Small secretariat working out technical details for Council
  • Says patient can forego medical aid
  • Positive measures urged in struggle against Commies

(Read all of these stories from our April 20, 1962, issue by logging on to our special archives.) †

Local site Links: